7 ways to make IT operations more efficient

Efficiency leads to increased productivity and cost savings. Here are seven ways you can boost IT efficiency for lasting impact.

No CIO wants to lead an inefficient IT organization. That’s a given. Yet due to inattention or by sticking to outdated practices, IT can become progressively inefficient and unproductive.

Addressing IT efficiency should be an ongoing process, not a one-time event, says Robert Orshaw, global cloud operate leader with Deloitte Consulting. Continuous improvement is key, he notes.

“IT landscapes are dynamic and ever-changing, so key indicators like efficiency metrics should be reviewed and addressed regularly to ensure optimal performance,” he says. Such continuous monitoring allows for timely identification and rectification of negative issues, leading to a steady improvement in efficiency over time. “Regular checks and adjustments ensure that that your systems always are positioned to deliver peak performance.”

Are you looking to make your IT operations more efficient (and who isn’t)? Then consider adopting some or all the following seven proven strategies.

1. Adopt AI

IT leaders strive to give their customers a fresh digital experience while simultaneously dealing with extreme cost pressures. A rapidly emerging approach that Orshaw sees delivering significant market value is AI-based tools in operations, a discipline known as AIOps.

Orshaw notes that AI, when used in combination with a sound IT service management platform, will not only drive cost reductions but also dramatically transform quality and process adherence within IT operations. “The progressive companies we support leverage AI and ML technologies to automate routine tasks, predict and identify potential issues before they occur, and provide data-driven insights that accelerate both delivery capacity and decision-making, driving a significant efficiency lift to many organizations’ operations,” he says.

2. Foster an efficiency culture

Base your IT department on a foundation of operational excellence, suggests Jay Upchurch, executive vice president and CIO at analytics platform provider SAS. “Create a culture of efficiency and invest in a continuous service improvement model,” he advises.

Begin by standardizing processes and procedures, then create measurable metrics around them. “Offering training and enablement ensures that your team understands its responsibilities,” Upchurch says. “Automate where necessary, but remember that automating in the wrong way can promote failure,” he warns. “Also be sure to set measurable targets and track improvement over time.”

3. Embrace an MVP mindset

Minimum viable products (MVPs), with enough features to attract early-adopter customers, can help modernize the tech stack in small increments. “This enables the IT department to make progress toward goals without disrupting the entire business,” says Daragh Mahon, CIO at freight carrier and logistics company Werner Enterprises.

Modernization helps a business run more efficiently while driving agility. “By taking an MVP approach to modernizing the tech stack and business applications, companies can ensure they’re improving operations and investing in innovation without completely transforming processes,” Mahon explains. “Our IT team at Werner is fully committed to the MVP philosophy, ensuring we deliver the right product to achieve goals and propel business growth.”

4. Prioritize projects for business value

Most IT operations are inundated with a backlog of projects. To achieve greater efficiency, projects should be effectively rated and prioritized, says Jon Pratt, CIO at data centers operator 11:11 Systems. Pratt believes that all CIOs need to ask themselves a simple, basic question: “What’s the value of this project to the business?” Spending time, money, and effort on “nice-to-haves” kills IT effectiveness and wastes precious resources on low ROI outcomes, he warns.

Pratt notes that after a project has been deployed, several KPIs can be used to identify efficiency levels, including cost per ticket, response, resolution, call/chat availability — and most important — customer/user satisfaction. “Ensuring you’re meeting your SLAs and improving them shows that your IT ops are efficient and working as desired,” he adds.

IT leaders should consider taking cues from business leaders to synchronize goals, Pratt advises. He believes that every enterprise should form a business-IT steering committee, an organization responsible for establishing an overall vision and goals, prioritizing high-profile projects. “This ensures cross-department awareness, visibility, and executive agreement,” he explains. “From there, the IT leadership runs with the vision and executes the strategy.”

IT leaders need to be proactive, keeping a finger on the organization’s pulse at all times, particularly in relation to department expenses, Pratt says. “Making adjustments proactively allows the leader to control the decisions in headcount, shift resources, and control spend.”

5. Get structured with ITOM

IT can be made more efficient by establishing an IT operations management (ITOM) approach, says Prashant Kelker, chief strategy officer at technology research and advisory firm ISG.

ITOM provides a structured model that works to improve operational efficiency, optimize resource utilization, reduce infrastructure sprawl, drive scalability, and enhance end-user experience while using delivery automation. “ITOM should also regularly analyze and report operational performance using a well-designed IT operations performance management dashboard,” Kelker suggests.

Kelker notes that ISG research recently found that nearly 66% of enterprises wish to automate as many operations as possible, and another 61% want to drive greater efficiency and productivity of IT operations teams and processes. “Any IT operations automation approach should leverage AIOps to deliver efficiency,” he says. “Commonly implemented AIOps use cases will drive reduction in open incident tickets and service outages with AI-infused intelligent alerting, auto-remediation, root cause analysis, anomaly/threat detection, and capacity optimization.”

6. Leverage industry benchmarks

Eli Cohen, CEO and co-founder of The ADU Guide, a construction company that creates accessory dwellings (secondary housing units built on a single-family residential lot), believes that IT efficiency should be based on squeezing the most value out of IT resources while minimizing costs.

Leveraging industry benchmarks has proved instrumental in driving efficiency within IT operations, Cohen says. “Regularly comparing our performance against industry standards allows us to gain valuable insights into our strengths and weaknesses,” he explains. “Identifying areas where we may fall short or excel enables strategic decision-making for improvement.”

“By embracing industry benchmarks, we’ve set a clear standard for success, fostering a culture of continuous improvement within our IT team,” Cohen says. “This proactive approach ensures that we not only meet but exceed industry norms, staying at the forefront of technological advancements.”

7. Emphasize self-service for scale

Jonny LeRoy, senior vice president and CTO at industrial supply company Grainger, believes that strong customer service is a frequently overlooked efficiency attribute. “We’re moving toward self-service through automation and want users to be able to resolve most of their own IT service needs with ease, reducing the number of interactions.”

LeRoy says he focuses on building self-service systems that are easy to access and operate. “We’re trying to scale the amount of customers we serve without having to scale our technology teams linearly with growth,” he explains. Achieving this goal requires an ongoing focus on efficiency. “Through our focus on continuous improvement via self-service and effective problem management practices, we have been able to shrink our frontline support volume by one-third in 12 months.”

LeRoy also believes that a flexible domain model will rapidly improve customer satisfaction. “A ‘one size fits all’ operations model can introduce complexities for our customers and our engineers,” he says. The model he deployed automatically routes work to agents possessing the specific expertise needed to make interactions as smooth as possible.

“By working to embed continuous improvement, we’ve ensured we have the basics right, leveraged playbooks to create standardization, and have created a unified support model across different operational teams,” LeRoy concludes.